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China's population

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China's population
China's top decision-making body announced in late October that it would relax the one-child policy, a controversial birth control measure Beijing introduced officially in the early 1980s to curb population growth. But demographers say the easing in the rules will not do much to rebalance China's ageing population.
A woman and two children shop in front of a refrigerated cheese shelf at a supermarket in Beijing on July 10. Photo: Reuters
China society

Opinion | China’s baby boom depends on gender equality, not cash handouts

To arrest its falling birth rate, China must ensure women do not have to choose between motherhood and the lives they have built.

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China economy

Opinion | China’s economic shift may hinge on what migrant workers do next

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China jobs

Could Filipinos benefit as China opens door to foreign domestic work schools?

Health in China

China’s five-year public health blueprint

Officials target raising life expectancy to 80 years by 2030 in national health blueprint under 15th five-year plan.

Photo: Shutterstock
China consumption

Price of parenting: the household maths giving China’s consumers pause

Falling property wealth, job insecurity and sky-high childcare costs are forcing middle-class families to aggressively scale back consumer spending.

China economy

Opinion | To prosper, China must become a magnet for international students

China must seize the opportunity to become a global education hub. Reform of its universities should begin now.

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China's ageing population

China’s state agencies are hiring retirees as the workforce rapidly ages

Universities, hospitals and government departments are actively recruiting retired former workers to cope with rapid demographic changes.

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Chinese government departments are increasingly hiring retirees as society ages rapidly. Photo: EPA-EFE
China's economic recovery

China’s population ageing seen as ‘inevitable’ by 2050. Why push more births?

Raising the fertility rate above 1.3 still remains crucial to preventing a far worse scenario later in the century, analysts say.

China’s Communist Party

Will reluctance from local government undermine reforms to China’s hukou system?

At present, millions of workers cannot register in the cities where they work, limiting access to services such as health and education.

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China’s Communist Party

As China’s Communist Party grows more slowly, its members are getting older

World’s second-largest political party is ageing, official data shows, with nearly 30 per cent of members aged 61 or older.

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The ageing of the Communist Party is unfolding alongside a broader demographic crisis across the country. Photo: AFP

Video | Why is China overhauling its hukou system?

The hukou system once placed severe limits on migrant workers’ access to social welfare in major Chinese cities.

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China’s private sector

China is fretting over a demographic crisis – but what companies might benefit?

Goldman Sachs says pharmaceutical, biotech sectors could see strongest tailwinds, while car industry, tech hardware makers may struggle.

United States

Opinion | As populations fall, nations that can tap human potential will succeed

Countries that use today’s demographic window to accumulate human and technological capital will gain a long-term advantage.

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China consumption

China has the most smokers in the world. Is it harming the economy?

Public health experts warn low taxes on cigarettes risk undermining Beijing’s pursuit of a healthier population.

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A smoker in Yichang city, Hubei province on May 31, 2025. China is home to about 350 million smokers, according to the WHO. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Ageing society

Opinion | East Asia’s population challenge isn’t just about raising birth rates

Sustainable policies must strengthen people’s well-being and expand opportunities, creating a society where everyone can thrive.

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A woman and child rest on some steps in Tsim Sha Tsui on January 13. Photo: Jelly Tse
Mainland China

How Shenzhen’s growing population defies expectations in China’s changing cities

The global tech powerhouse attracts more workers and has higher birth and lower mortality rates than the national average.

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China's economic recovery

China expands migrant workers’ access to public services

SCMP Plus annotates the State Council’s 13-point guidelines for easing restrictions under the nation’s hukou household registration system.

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China's ageing population

China’s population over 65 outnumbers children for first time since 1949: survey

At the end of last year, 15.87 per cent of China’s population was aged at least 65, compared with 15.25 per cent aged between 0 and 14.

A staff member serves cakes to two women at an elderly care service centre in Linyi, Shandong province, on May 10. Photo: Xinhua
China birth rate

China to start certifying cities and workplaces as ‘birth-friendly’

Campaign aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years.

China economy

China’s marriage numbers plunge to Covid-era low as population woes deepen

Fewer than 1.7 million couples tied the knot in the first quarter, the lowest total for the same period since lockdown-dominated 2020.

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China economy

Why Gen Z is abandoning Beijing for greener fields elsewhere in China

The percentage of the capital’s population aged between 20 and 29 plunged from 21.3 per cent in 2015 to 11.4 per cent in 2024.

An elderly woman walks past a bank branch in Beijing on April 20. Photo: EPA
Shanghai

‘It’s a new crowd’: how Shanghai’s expat population is recovering – and changing

Four years ago, Shanghai’s draconian lockdown sparked an exodus of foreigners. Now, there are signs the city’s expat community is slowly bouncing back.

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Tourists from Belarus and Russia pose for photos at Yuyuan Garden in central Shanghai. Photo: Xinhua
US-China relations

The ageing dilemma: why robots can’t save us but China-US cooperation might

US medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman looks for path out of a social paradox: longer lives without a defined social role.

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Hong Kong society

Opinion | Hong Kong is getting its population policy assumptions all wrong

Rather than encouraging more births, Hong Kong should align its family-related policies with the Greater Bay Area’s demographic system.

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China's economic recovery

Open Questions | How China can avoid a repeat of Japan’s ‘lost decades’

Bai Chongen, an economist and adviser to China’s government, explains how the country can dodge ‘Japanification’ and why its economic rise is misunderstood.

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Illustration: Henry Wong
China birth rate

In China, a France-sized population loss begins to test coastal powerhouses

Rising pension burdens and social security subsidies are also straining public finances – though trends remain uneven, analysts say.

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Elderly people rest at a park in Fuyang in eastern China’s Anhui province on September 13, 2024. Photo: AFP
China jobs

China’s youth unemployment crunch deepens as record graduation season looms

China’s official youth jobless rate climbed to 16.9 per cent in March, with another 12.7 million graduates set to enter the job market this summer.

China jobs

Shanghai mobilises seniors to work longer amid China’s demographic crisis

With one in three residents above retirement age, Shanghai’s 28-department plan aims to mobilise retirees to offset shrinking payrolls and rising pension strains.

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